Rabbi Yehudah b. Bava

Talmudic Figures

R. Yehudah b. Bava was an important scholar who lived at the same time as R. Akiva. He was so exceptional in his piety, that when the Talmud mentions a certain pious man, the reference is almost always to him. He defied the persecutory Roman laws by ordaining students in a hidden location in the mountains. Caught in this act, he was killed by the Romans.

Sources

The Gemara asks: And is it so that one man alone is not able to ordain a rabbi? But doesn’t Rav Yehuda say that Rav says: Indeed [beram], that man will be remembered favorably, and Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava is his name, as had it not been for him the laws of fines would have been forgotten from among the Jewish people. The Gemara challenges that assertion: Would the laws of fines actually have been forgotten? Let them study them, so they will not be forgotten. Rather, his intention was to say that

Sanhedrin 13b:12

And he too, Shmuel HaKatan, said the following statement of divinely inspired prediction at the time of his death: Shimon, i.e., Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, and Yishmael, i.e., Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha the High Priest, are slated for the sword, and their colleagues for killing, and the rest of the people for plunder, and great troubles are destined to befall the people. The Gemara relates: And they also sought to say about Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava, when eulogizing him: Alas pious one, alas humble one…

Sotah 48b:9

It was stated: It is possible to raise questions about all couples from the time that Moses died until Yose ben Yoezer from Ṣereda and Joseph ben Joḥanan from Jerusalem. It is possible to raise questions about all couples from the time that Yose ben Yoezer from Ṣereda and Joseph ben Joḥanan from Jerusalem died until Rebbi Jehudah ben Baba arose. They said about Rebbi Jehudah ben Baba that all he did was in the name of Heaven except that he raised an animal of the flock. This happened the following way. Once he fell sick and the medical men went to visit him…

Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 9:10:3

Rabbi Jehuda ben Baba, another one of the Ten Martyrs, lost his life during the period of the decree against ordination. He was a pupil of Shmuel the Younger (Hakatan) and later he was a colleague of Rabbi Akiba in Jabneh and he frequently debated with him the regulations of Jewish life. When the persecution was in full force he ruled that weddings were legal even when performed in the presence of one witness. When testimony was taken regarding the various Jewish customs, he related that on one occasion in Jerusalem a rooster was condemned to be stoned to death for killing a child in its crib…

The Jewish Spiritual Heroes, Volume I; The Creators of the Mishna, The Ten Martyrs 16-20

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Tannaim - Fourth Generation

c.110 – c.135 CE

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